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Topic: Help us DIY update our laundry room! (Read 694 times)

We want to DIY update our laundry room and need some help. The room is in a daylight basement and the walls are all concrete with some chipping and multiple colors. The ceiling is joists that used to support ceiling tiles and are trying to figure out the best way to redo that. We were also thinking about epoxying the concrete floor. Then paint the walls/ceiling and replace the utility sink. Another thought was building the wall with the sewer drain and laundry utilities out ~6 inches and hanging drywall there as well. Also a radon mitigation system was recently installed and shown in one of the pics attached.

Frame it outre-wireRun gas and electric for a dryer just in caseInsulate Replace windows with something functional put in recessed lightingDrywallBuy or build cabinets to build around the sinkLaminate counter for folding / laundry workstationFold down drying rackBars for hanging clothesVinyl lock and click floorsHell, maybe built in ceiling speakers with Bluetooth

A couple of years ago, I painted my furnace room floor with paint (?epoxy? not sure) made for garage floors, the kind with the little chips of colour in it. I love it! It's both tough and attractive. I would definitely do that for a laundry room if I had the chance, especially as you have a floor drain. My second choice would be vinyl composition tiles or linoleum.

Whether or not to frame out and drywall depends, it seems to me, on whether you want it to look like a regular room or you're happy with a functional exposed-pipes look. For me personally, the extra work would not be worth doing for the increment in attractiveness. I would install a ceiling unless it would be really low, and probably cabinets rather than shelving because it gives a tidier look.

Let's back up a second. What do you *want* out of this laundry room, and how do you envision using it?From the photos it seems obvious that extensive finishing is required, but that's really the end of the discussion, not the beginning.

If you are just going for functional with the minimum amount of cost & work you can skim-coat the chips in the walls/floors, frame out the window, put in a ceiling and paint the whole thing and be done with it in a couple fo weekends and a few hundred$ in materials. But if you want something that looks really nice and where you might spend a decent amount of time (e.g. folding and sorting laundry) and has a 'wow' factor - I'd do more of what Papa bear suggested.

Some things to think about:Do you want/need storage space (linens, cleaning products etc)?Folding table?Drying rack?Is this space visible from other areas of the house (e.g. do you walk by it en route to the garage?)Dog-washing sink?Is this a place where people take their shoes on/off (if so - include bench and storage for boots/coats/hats etc)?what 'collects' there now? (find a place for these items int he new space)

I always start with thinking about how I want the space to be used and that will determine how to renovate.

I would suggest embracing an industrial look instead of framing it out. Polished concrete or epoxy floor. Exposed pipes and electrical conduit. Sand-blasted ceiling. All this will save you quite a bit of money and time compared to proper finishing, but also save you from dealing with a leak -- from the laundry or from stormwater -- which is only a matter of time in a basement.

Posting for ideas. Unfortunately, i didn't get a super great before. Did all this for ~$1000

There were cheap laminate/vinyl tiles on the floor that were peeling. Basically the same floor as you - concrete. Exposed foundation, and we had drywall hung but not taped or mudded. I did some taping/mudding, but mostly left it because it's a laundry room.

I would paint the floor with a paint made for concrete, paint the walls with an off-white paint (masonry paint for outside walls), then just whitewash the ceiling beams. You have a lot of room for storage in the room - decide what you want to put there. Maybe a base cabinet from Habitat ReStore for folding clothes, and the rest shelves?